Nearby Theaters

The Avalon Theatre was opened on August 4, 1936 with a seating capacity of 510. It was closed in April 1958.

Reopened as the Marysville Cinema it is a nice theatre located in the heart of downtown Marysville. It is a first-run theatre with admission just $4 at anytime.

The Marysville Cinema is family owned and operated by a local family since 2000. The largest screen seats approximately 200, with around 100 seats in the medium sized screen and 50 seats in the small screen. The folks here are always friendly and nice, and are always smiling. Some of the decor could be updated, but what they have done with the place since 2000 is wonderful.

The price of admission is extemly low in comparison to other theatres in surrounding cities. You can buy a ticket, drink and popcorn for next to nothing and still go home with money in your pocket. I am not sure how they do it, but they do.

The owners are a young couple with children and have always taken the time to talk or tell you about the movies. They take time to listen and it really feel like they want your business. I have stopped going to the larger theaters, and for the last five years have gone here to support them. All in all, I would give them and over 8 out of 10, only because of the decor, but everything else is top notch.

A May 19, 1958, Boxoffice article about the closing of the Avalon that year said that before building the Avalon in 1936, F.E. Price had operated the Strand and Rex theatres in Marysville. It added that by 1958 these two houses had been closed for several years.

The February 16, 1970, issue of Boxoffice says: “Charles Van Fossen, formerly Palace Theatre manager, Columbus, is the new manger of the Avalon Theatre, Marysville, opening in a few weeks after renovation. I’ve found no other mentions of Van Fossen’s project in Boxoffice.

From our family to your family, we would first like to say thank you to our loyal patrons and to the community of Marysville for 10 years of doing business together. We regret that we have come to the decision that we have, but after discussing the over all business plan with my wife, praying together about it, and talking to our immediate family, we have made the decision that the best thing to do for our family at this time is to close Marysville Cinemas down effective immediately. As you may suspect this was not an easy decision for us to make, but one that had to be made.

Over this last year, as a family, we have invested everything we had to try and maintain the level of service that came to be expected of us by the community at the cinema, but in the end it was not enough. While our loyal patrons have continued to support us over the last few years, and we thank you for that, the general admission patronage has dropped to levels that will not sustain the business any longer.

We have tried our best over the years to play first run movies and to always have at least two of the top five films in the nation at any one time. But the strain on the theater to play first run movies has become to great. Though the demand from the community for first run features remains high, the attendance levels have been at an all time low and continue to drop. Coupled together with todayâ€™s current economic situation, we have not been able to procure the funds needed to continue to operate. More over, due to the high operating cost and lack of customer turn out, much needed cosmetic repair to the cinema has been delayed or has been stopped all together. It seems that the support from the community to keep the cinema open over the last few years has been slipping away and while the support from our local patrons has been there, it has not been enough to keep us in business with the cost burden the theater was under.

To give example and add explanation to our decision to close the cinema, we were already running in the red going into the month of November. Our hope was that the spending confidence within our community would increase based on the film title release dates and our November business sales model that we had used in the past would bring the cinema back to with in a manageable margin. We have always used the month of November for our business model for the winter months, which is notoriously our largest grossing month of the year. Roughly 5-10% of our yearly gross income is obtained in the month of November. In November of 2007 the cinema had approximately 2500-3000 patrons in attendance. In 2008 the cinema had approximately 3000-3500 patrons in attendance. This year, in 2009, the cinema had its lowest grossing November in the last ten years with just over 1000 patrons in attendance. This combined with a huge decline in the amount of gift certificate sales and coupon redemptions along with stagnant concession sales made the inevitable decision to close the theater very obvious.

In conclusion, while it was not an easy decision to close the theater, it was a decision that had to be made for our family. My wife and I canâ€™t express enough, the gratitude to all the families that allowed us to be part of their lives over the last ten years. It has been very humbling to us that the community we have been a part of for over 30 years and that we love, took us in and gave us their support. We want to thank everyone for this, we will miss you.. As always, our hope is for the future and for our great community and that some day we might cross paths again.

A privately-funded organization called the Union County Development Fund has purchased the Avalon Theatre building, as well as two other buildings in Uptown, Marysville’s historic business district. It intends to renovate and reopen the theater, but plans have been stalled for quite a while. This item appeared in the local paper over a year ago, and it’s the most recent information I’ve been able to find.

The Avalon Theatre was designed and built by the F & Y Building Service of Columbus, Ohio. It was one of eleven theaters on a list of the company’s projects in an ad that was published in the October 27, 1938, issue of the Boone County Recorder.

In photos of the Avalon, one can see some type of stylized box on the sidewalk next to the road. It has an “A” on it, and is aligned with the theatre box office. It appears in photos that were taken twenty years apart. Anyone know what this might have been?